Addis Ababa: Ethiopia is focusing on being self-reliant in medical equipment and pharmaceuticals, according to Ministry of Health.
The local medical inputs manufacturing and innovation exhibition recently opened by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed at the Millennium Hall has demonstrated Ethiopia’s encouraging activities to become self-reliant in the production of medical equipment and supplies.
Health State Minister, Frehiwot Abebe told ENA that the ministry is focused on creating a healthy citizenry by engaging in preventive-based curative practices across the country.
The state minister, who said that efforts have been underway to increase the share of local supply of medicine and medical equipment, added that this would also be a big leap toward creating jobs and foreign currency.
According to her, focusing on the development and production of local products will not only ensure economic sovereignty of the country but also help to extricate the nation from dependency in the sector.
She revealed that various
activities are being carried out in this regard in line with the directives set by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed.
ShieldVax Enterprise, a vaccine producing enterprise, is under construction to locally produce vaccines and replace exported vaccines, Frehiwot further disclosed.
Moreover, actions geared towards ensuring sustained national development in the health sector, and measures supporting local producers in the sector by assisting them to produce quality materials that replace imported items would be strengthened, the state minister added.
She further said ScinticaMed, a medical manufacturing company, has started producing ultrasound machines demonstrating that the nation is actively involved in producing medical equipment.
Recall that Health Minister, Dr. Mekedes Daba stated that activities have been underway to upscale the share of local pharmaceutical industries with 47 percent in accordance with the mid-term plan for development and investment in the health sector.
Ethiopia has already developed a sy
stem of supply of medical inputs, health and pharmaceutical polices to enable the country to become self-sufficient in the sector over time, the minister added.
The nation has managed to locally produce medicine supplies worth 75 million USD this Ethiopian fiscal year, enabling the government to save 53.1 million USD.
Source: Ethiopian News Agency